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Certain Black-Letter Days 



IN TIIK 



Life of William Penn 



ADDRESS OF 

FRANK WILLING LEACH 

BEFORE THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 1916 




MCMXVn 






■cu a m7 



Certain Black-Letter Days 

IN THE 

Life of William Penn 

In dwelling upon the Colonial history of Pennsylvania, 
the mind's vision covers a radius of practically a century, 
or, from the time certain of the early colonists in West New 
Jersey gra\dtated across the Delaware into what is now 
Bucks county, say, in 1677 or 1678, until the Declaration 
of Independence, in 1776. 

It was an eventful, formative period, and many notable 
characters appeared upon the public stage, from time to 
time, as dominating factors in the scheme of evolutionary 
development. 

Chief among these, however, stands out conspicuously 
the forerunner of them all, the great governmental path- 
finder, except for whose foresight, zeal, and determination 
there would have been no subsequent history to narrate. 

It has occurred to me to present, not a perfunctory bio- 
graphical sketch of Wilham Penn, but certain of the more 
notable incidents in his career, particularly those phases of 
his life which had a more or less direct bearing upon, or were 
largely influenced by, his identification with the common- 
wealth founded by him. 

For reasons of my own I shall give my paper this some- 
what uninviting title: ''Certain Black-Letter Events in the 
Life of Wilham Penn." 

I do not deny that there were red-letter events in his 
varied life; that he was born with a silver spoon in his 
mouth, so to speak; that he was the son of a noted naval 
officer, who rose to the rank of Vice Admiral of England; 
that he received a superior education, including three years 

1 



BLACK-LETTER DAYS IN THE LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN 

at Oxford; that he spent a considerable period in Paris, and 
traveled extensively on the Continent ; that he was presented 
at several courts, and, at times, was a courtier with large 
influence; that his first marriage was almost an ideal one, 
in that his wife was a woman of great beauty and culture, 
and a member of a noble family; that his second marital 
venture was even more felicitous, in that the wife then chosen 
was a woman of great strength of character, who was pre- 
destined to be his mainstay in the dark days which followed. 

Nevertheless, in viewing his career, I lay a greater em- 
phasis upon the black-letter days, because such events have 
impressed me more strongly than the antithetical episodes 
of his life, particularly in their relation to the Province which 
he created, but which proved almost a Frankenstein to him, 
and brought a far greater degree of mental torture, than 
gratification or peace of mind. 

First among the black-letter events of his life may be 
noted the persecutions which followed his identification with 
the Society of Friends. 

Penn was first imprisoned in Cork, Ireland, in 1667, hav- 
ing been arrested for frequent attendance upon prohibited 
Quaker meetings, though on a charge of "riot," to employ 
the technical term used upon the occasion of his arrest. 

The following year, 1668, he was apprehended in Lon- 
don and confined in the Tower for publishing his religious 
tract, ''The Sandy Foundation Shaken." 

In 1670, following the promulgation of the "Conven- 
ticle Act," he was again arrested, and confined in both New- 
gate and Old Bailey, for preaching in Grace Church street. 

A year later, 1671, he was once more arraigned, and 
placed, first, in the Tower, and, later, in Newgate, upon a 
similar charge. 

During the months covered by his several imprisonments 
he devoted his energies to writing numerous religious tracts, 
notably his "No Cross, No Crown." 



BLACK-LETTER DAYS IN THE LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN 

Like St. Paul and Silas, like Cervantes and John Bunyan, 
the fact that Penn was deprived of his liberty for months 
at a time, for years in the aggregate, seems to have acted 
as an inspiration, to the end that valuable contributions 
were made to the literature of his day. William Penn was 
such an irrepressible personage, so active and strenuous, 
that it is very doubtful if he would ever have found time to 
write any of his larger works, except for the compulsory re- 
straint imposed upon him. 

Perhaps, from this viewpoint, these early black-letter 
days were, in reality, red-letter days, because of the refining 
and elevating influences of these experiences upon his char- 
acter, whereby he was the more adequately equipped for the 
larger and more strenuous developments to come. 

Passing by the decade from 1671 to 1681, when Penn 
seems to have followed the even tenor of his way, with few 
untoward incidents to bring the shadows into his life, we 
come to the eventful period when his vision became enlarged, 
his horizon widened, and a commonwealth was bom. 

He received from Charles II his charter to Pennsyl- 
vania, dated March 4, 1681, and, a year and six months 
later, he set sail for the garden spot of his dreams. 

Had the early Quakers been an emotional folk, or had 
their progeny, in the days of letters, been a literary people, 
as were the men of New England, the voyage of the Welcome 
would have been embalmed in poetry, as a monumental oc- 
currence in the nation's history, as, for centuries, has been 
that of the Mayflower, sixty-two years previously. 

Who can read of that remarkable transatlantic journey 
without a thrill? One hundred souls there were, at the 
time of embarkation. Upon arrival, there were only sixty 
or seventy passengers on board. The remainder had gone 
to a watery grave, dead of that most loathsome of diseases, 
smallpox ! 

What a striking, almost unique picture is that presented 

3 



BLACK-LETTER DAYS IN THE LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN 

by Richard Townsend, one of the passengers, who wrote, 
speaking of Penn : 

''His good conversation was very advantageous to all the 
company. His singular care was manifested in contributing 
to the necessities of many who were sick with the smallpox 
then on board, of which company about thirty died." 

Townsend adds : 

''We had many good meetings on board." 

Imagine "many good meetings on board" a floating 
chamel house! Where are our poets, that some master pen 
has not depicted that amazing scene in undying verse? 

Immediately after Penn's departure for America, we find 
the first evidences of the trials and tribulations which were 
to mark the greater part of his life as the Founder and Pro- 
prietary of Pennsylvania. Indeed, the inauguration of that 
great project, which he looked forward to as a great civi- 
Uzing undertaking, brought him httle but misery, and finally 
carried him down into the shadows of life, culminating in 
the shadow of death. 

The first of his troubles in this direction came in the form 
of attacks made in England, shortly after his arrival in 
America. One of these was in the nature of a pubhcation, 
"The History of WiUiam Penn's Conversion from a Gentle- 
man to a Quaker. Or a Stop to the Call of the Unconverted. 
To the poor, trapan'd, simple, deluded People in Pennsyl- 
vania: Dated the 15th day of the Month Ahib, in the first 
Hegira or flight of the Prophet Penn to his Sylvania." 

It was also reported that he was dead, and that he died 
professing faith in the Church of Rome. 

These stories were so widely circulated that Penn's 
London agent, Philip Ford, felt constrained to pubhsh a 
denial in the London Gazette of January 15, 1682-83. 

Subsequently Ford issued a pamphlet, entitled "A Vin- 
dication of WilUam Penn, Proprietary of Pennsylvania, from 
late Aspersions spread abroad on purpose to Defame him." 

4 



BLACK-LETTER DAYS IN THE LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN 

Penn himself, when he heard these stories, wrote as fol- 
lows : 

"Some persons have had so little wit, and so much malice, 
as to report my death, and, to mend matters, dead a Jesuit, 
too. One might have reasonably hoped that this distance 
like death would have been a protection against spite and 
envy. ... However, to the great sorrow and shame of the 
inventors, I am still alive, and no Jesuit, and, I thank God, 
very well." 

Another of the black-letter events in Penn's life devel- 
oped almost immediately after his arrival in Pennsylvania, 
namely, the boundary dispute between him and Lord Balti- 
more. 

He had scarcely more than landed in Chester, from the 
Welcome, before he found it advisable to make a visit to 
Maryland, where he had an interview with the Proprietor 
of that Province. Eventually the controversy took on 
alarming proportions, an intercolonial war almost resulting. 
As a matter of fact, the struggle was prolonged many years 
after Penn's death. Indeed, it was not finally settled until 
the running of the Mason and Dixon line, in 1763-67. 

So strenuous became this contest during Penn's sojourn 
in Pennsylvania that, contrary to his evident program, he 
was compelled by reason of it to bring his residence in Amer- 
ica to a close, that he might return to England and continue 
there his battle with Lord Baltimore. Penn himself says, 
in his '^Further Account": 

''The reason of my coming back was a Difference be- 
tween the Lord Baltimore and myself, about the Lands of 
Delaware, in consequence reputed of mighty moment to us, 
so I wav'd publishing anything that might look in favor of 
the Country, or inviting to it, whilst it lay under the Dis- 
couragement and Disreputation of that Lord's claim and 
pretenses." 

It is quite evident that Penn had intended, originally, to 



BLACK-LETTER DAYS IN THE LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN 

remain permanently in America. Thus, writing February 5, 
1683, shortly after establishing himself in Philadelphia, he 
said to Lord Culpeper, the newly-arrived Governor of 
Virginia: 

"I am mightily taken with this part of the world; . . . 
my family being once fixed with me, and if no other thing 
occur, I am likely to be an adopted American." 

Fate decreed otherwise, however, and, August 13, 1684, 
Penn set sail for England, in the ketch Endeavor. He re- 
turned to his native land with much less of buoyancy and 
hopefulness than had animated him upon his departure, two 
years previously. Though he knew it not, he returned to 
pass through the fires of deep affliction, domestic, financial, 
and political. Before he should again set foot upon the vir- 
gin soil of his Province in the New World, his soul was to be 
submerged in a deluge of wretchedness. 

Temporarily adjusting his controversy with Lord Balti- 
more, Penn turned his attention— James II having ascended 
the throne — to zealous efforts in behalf of over 1000 per- 
secuted Quakers, whose release from prison he finally brought 
about. Commenting upon this act of altruism, a writer has 
said: 

''Strange as it may seem, it is to the methods which he 
took in doing this great and beneficent work that we must 
ascribe the bitter opposition and hatred with which he was 
assailed by the political party then dominant in England. 
It is sad to reflect that to his zeal in doing good, mistaken 
according to the standard of that time, were due those trials 
and misfortunes which pressed so hardly upon him during 
the remainder of his life, involving the loss of his govern- 
ment and of his fortune, and the total subversion of his wise 
plans for ruling his Province." 

The machinations of James II and of his enemies re- 
sulted in the flight of the former to France, December 22, 
1688, and thereafter William Penn, one of the few intimate 

6 



black-letter days in the life of WILLIAM PENN 

friends of that unhappy monarch who elected to remain in 
England, was subjected to persecutions of all sorts, includ- 
ing his arrest and trial upon various charges, involving his 
alleged implication in plots and conspiracies. 

This was one of the blackest of the black-letter experi- 
ences of the great Quaker. The culmination of these trials 
and tribulations was the loss, in 1692, of his Province, which 
was arbitrarily taken away from him by the Crown and an- 
nexed to the Colony of New York. After a violent struggle, 
lasting two years, it was, in 1694, restored to him. In the 
meantime, however, his hfe had been one of constant 
anxiety and distress and of great financial loss. 

From this flowed another black-letter event in his life — 
the mortgaging of his Province, in 1696, to his former agent, 
Philip Ford. The distressing sequel to this act, staged eleven 
years later, will be referred to presently. 

A few years later followed his second visit to his Province 
on the Delaware. 

He had looked forward to this journey for many years. 
Writing December 12, 1685, shortly after his arrival in Eng- 
land, his ''Further Account," Penn said: 

''And because some has urged my coming back as an 
argument against the place, and the probability of its 
improvement; Adding, that I would for that reason never 
return; I think fit to say, That Next Summer, God wilUng, 
I intend to go back, and carry my Family, and the best part 
of my Personal Estate with me. And this I do, not only of 
Duty, but Inclination and Choice. God will Bless and Pros- 
per poor America." 

Instead of the "Next Summer," 1686, it was thirteen 
years later that Penn set sail the second time for his trans- 
atlantic Province. In the Canterbury, on September 9, 1699, 
he embarked from Cowes. 

It is altogether probable that his second voyage to Amer- 
ica was undertaken with thoughts and emotions quite dififer- 

7 



BLACK-LETTER DAYS IN THE LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN 

ent from those which actuated him seventeen years before, 
when, August 31, 1682, in the Welcome, he had sailed out 
of the Downs. 

Upon the occasion of his initial voyage he was 38 years 
of age, strong, vigorous, confident, buoyant, with a won- 
derful proposition, an heroic program, before him, and the 
sky of his hopes was cloudless and serene. 

Yet seventeen years had intervened — and such years! 
The Founder had been in a perpetual maelstrom, seething 
and irresistible — almost. Wars had environed him. The 
courts — of both sorts — had buffeted him. Prison doors had 
yawned before him. The gaunt hand of Death had twice 
entered his household and plucked dear ones from his side. 
Relentless enemies had pursued him. Petulant and unthink- 
ing friends upon both sides of the Atlantic had harassed him 
with their bickerings. Business difficulties had beset and 
tormented him. 

Yet there came a time when the sun shone out of and 
through the clouds. The tempest that had beat about him 
was subdued. Once more, though but for a time, peace and 
hope came into his life. Then, and not till then, he embarked 
a second time for his Utopia, where the fruits and flowers 
of the earth afforded delight to the onlooker, and Nature's 
other and more substantial products made the heart of man 
glad. 

It was on the 3d of December, 1699, that the Canter- 
bury reached Philadelphia; and Penn received a hearty 
welcome, though it was the Sabbath day. 

It is not necessary, in this connection, to dwell in detail 
upon the occurrences of the Founder's second visit to his 
chosen people. In the main, his sojourn was peaceful and 
profitable to all concerned — to the governor and to the 
governed. 

Great improvements were made in sociological and civic 
conditions. New and better laws were enacted for the better- 

8 



BLACK-LETTER DAYS IN THE LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN 

ment of the people, and a new charter was granted for the 
government of the city. 

This visit, however, Hke the first, lasted less than two 
years. Whatever may have been his original intentions 
regarding the duration of his residence in Pennsylvania, com- 
pelling occurrences rendered necessary his return to Eng- 
land, and thus his abode in the new world was hurriedly 
brought to a close. 

This act was made necessary by desperate efforts, on the 
part of certain enemies of his, both in England and America, 
to again induce the Crown to deprive him of his Province, 
that it might be governed directly by representatives of 
the King. 

Penn's second departure for England took place October 
31, 1701, he having embarked in the Dalmahoy that day. 

Thus, for the last time, he sailed away from America; 
away from the City and Province which he had carved, by 
his indomitable will and wonderful intellectual grasp, from 
the primeval forests; away from objects, scenes and persons 
that had brought into his hfe some of his chiefest delights, 
as well as worries and harassments unspeakable, whereby 
he became an old man before his time. 

Nevermore placed he his foot upon Pennsylvania soil. 

Prior to sailing he said : 

"I cannot think of such a voyage without great reluc- 
tancy of mind, having promised myself the quietness of a 
wilderness." 

He had not, however, found Pennsylvania altogether an 
elysium of bliss, for he wrote thus : 

"What I have met with here is without Example, and 
what a Diadem would not tempt me to undergo seven years 
—faction in Govern^ and almost indissolvible knots in 
property." 

Arriving in England, there began a series of incidents 
in Penn's life which may be said to have been a succession 

d 



BLACK-LETTER DAYS IN THE LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN 

of black-letter days; a series of controversies, perplexities, 
and annoyances, which brought unspeakable sorrow into 
his heart, and surrounded him with shadows which never 
were Ufted. 

First, he fought and finally won the battle for the control 
of his Province, though a bill had actually passed second 
reading in Parliament to revoke the charter granted to him 
by Charles II. 

Then came a great trouble, partly domestic and partly 
political. In 1704 he sent to Pennsylvania his eldest son, 
Wilham Penn, Jr., a wild, harum-scarum, easily-led young 
man, with the hope that the change of environment and 
the primitive Ufe of a pioneer settlement might have an 
elevating and helpful influence upon him. 

Unfortunately his hopes in that direction were not real- 
ized. Young Penn led a life which scandalized the staid 
Quakers of the Quaker City, finally ending in his arrest in 
the brawl at Enoch Story's Pewter Platter tavern, with 
which students of local history are so familiar. The young 
man's exploits having been reported to the elder Penn, the 
latter, in a communication to James Logan, January 16, 
1704-05, thus expresses himself upon the subject, and the 
question of his straitened circumstances, financially speaking : 

"I think I may say I have all thy letters, as well private 
as public, from my son, John Askew, &c. A melancholy scene 
enough always; religiously upon my poor child. Pennsyl- 
vania begins it by my absence here, and there it is accom- 
plished with expense, disappointment, ingratitude, and 
poverty. The Lord uphold me under these sharp and heavy- 
burdens with his free spirit. I should have been glad of an 
account of his expenses, and more of a rent-roll, that I may 
know what I have to stand upon and help myself with. He 
is my greatest affliction for his soul's and my posterity's or 
family's sake. 

''I say once again, let me have a rent-roll, or I must sink, 

10 



BLACK-LETTER DAYS IN THE LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN 

with gold in my view but not in my power. To have neither 
supplies nor a reason of credit here, is certainly a cruel cir- 
cumstance." 

Eventually the younger Penn was recalled to England, 
because of his performances in America. He was not a 
wicked man, but a weak one, with little of the vigorous per- 
sonality of his father. Isaac Norris, writing, in July, 1704, 
describes him as follows: 

"He is good-natured, and loves company, but that of 
Friends is too dull." 

The young man's life at home, following his return to 
England, was quite as much of a failure as it had been in 
Pennsylvania. He was a perpetual care to his father, and 
survived him only a couple of years. 

About the same period the Founder was in continual 
turmoil, because of the actions of certain dominant char- 
acters then holding public office in Pennsylvania, notably 
David Lloyd, the ablest man in the Province, whom Logan 
describes as ''a good lawyer, and of sound judgment, but 
extremely pertinacious and somewhat revengeful." 

I understand that a ''Life" of this remarkable man has 
been written by one of our most competent historians. 
When published it will prove a revelation to those not in- 
timately acquainted with this period in Pennsylvania's 
history. 

Associated with Lloyd in the controversial battle with 
the Proprietary were Robert Quarry, Judge of the Admiralty, 
and John Moore, Collector of Customs, the two official 
representatives of the Crown then in the Province. 

The annoyances and harassments to which Penn was 
subjected by these men, especially by Lloyd, would almost 
have broken down the will-power of a strong man untouched 
by other worries and embarrassments. In the case of 
WilHam Penn, they well-nigh drove him to distraction, and 
embittered his life to a degree almost unbearable. 



11 



BLACK-LETTER DAYS IN THE LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN 

About this time Penn evidently gave some thought to 
the question of a third voyage to America. Even as early 
as April 1, 1703, he had written Logan: 

"See if the town would be so kind to build me a pretty 
box hke Ed. Shippen's, upon any of my lots in town or liberty 
land, or purchase Griffith Owen's or T. Fairman's, or any near 
healthy spot, as Wicaco or the Hke, for Pennsbury will hardly 
accommodate my son's family and mine, unless enlarged." 

Over a year later, July 11, 1704, he wrote Logan: 

"Thou urgest my return; but alas! how is it good, since 
to save my estate here to discharge debts, I eat up what 
I have there, as the best returns ? But I want water to 
launch my vessel. Think of that; as also if I am not 
worthy of a house in or near town, such as Griffith Owen's, 
T. Fairman's or Daniel Pegg's, or the like, that 500 of your 
money, or perhaps 600 at most, may purchase for my 
reception, and at least 500 per annum to take there besides 
my own rents. I have spent all my days, moneys, pains, 
and interest, to a mean purpose. Think of this and 
impart it." 

There is something pathetic in this appeal of the Founder 
of Pennsylvania. Upon the occasion of his former visit, 
1699-1701, he had, while in town, lived in a rented house. 
Now he asks the city to build him "a pretty box like Ed. 
Shippen's." This appeal was never complied with, and, 
if the Founder had returned to Philadelphia, he literally 
would not have had a place to lay his head, except by the 
courtesy of some obliging friend. 

Penn was never able to carry into effect his plan to 
return to America. Indeed, so pitiful became his condition, 
financial and otherwise, that he finally concluded to abandon 
his Province, and sell it back to the Crown. In a letter to 
Logan, dated April 30, 1705, he wrote: 

"I can hardly be brought to turn my back entirely upon 
a place the Lord so specially brought to my hand and has 

12 



BLACK-LETTER DAYS IN THE LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN 

hitherto preserved against the proud sweUings of many waters, 
both there and here. My surrender of the government is 
before the Lords. . . . 

"I can do no more; and what with the load of your 
unworthy spirits there, and some not much better here, 
with my poor son's going into the Army or Navy, as well as 
getting into Parliament, thro' so many checks and tests 
upon his morals as well as education; with the loads of 
debt hardly to be answered, from the difficulty of getting 
in, what I have a right to, of twice their value, which is 
starving in the midst of bread, my head and heart are filled 
sufficiently with trouble. 

*'Yet the Lord holds up my head, and Job's over- 
righteous and mistaken friends have not sunk my soul 
from its confidence in God." 

The scheme to sell his Province to the Crown was not 
consummated, however. But, seven years later, Penn being 
in great financial straits again, his offer was renewed. 
Writing, July 24, 1712, to certain intimate friends in Phila- 
delphia, he said : 

"Now know, that though I have not actually sold my 
government to our truly good Queen, yet her able lord 
treasurer and I have agreed it." 

The sum he was to receive was £12,000, and £1,000 had 
actually been paid on account. Before, however, the neces- 
sary papers were prepared and signed, Penn was stricken 
with paralysis, and the bargain fell through. 

To how sad a pass had the fortunes of the once powerful 
Quaker come that he should have been forced to offer for 
sale his interest in the great project to which he had sacri- 
ficed all his talents, all his energies, all his means, and 
practically fife itself. 

Probably the blackest of the black-letter days which it 
was Penn's lot to endure came in 1707-08. In 1696 he had 
given a mortgage upon his Province to his former agent, 

13 



BLACK-LETTER DAYS IN THE LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN 

Philip Ford. The latter now proceeded to foreclose the 
mortgage. Indeed, upon examination it was found that 
the instrument in question was practically a deed, and 
proceedings were inaugurated to eject Penn and annul any 
and all claims to ownership he might have in Pennsylvania. 

Finally, a warrant was issued for him, and he was 
apprehended and incarcerated, first, in Fleet prison, and, 
later, in Old Bailey. His arrest took place on the same 
spot, at Grace Church Street Meeting, where he had been 
taken into custody 38 years previously, in 1670, and he was 
lodged at the same prison. Old Bailey, in which he had 
been confined for months upon that occasion. 

In a letter to his brother-in-law, Richard Hill, Isaac 
Norris, who had gone to London to help the Proprietary in 
his great trouble, thus wrote to the melancholy affair : 

"Govemour Penn was last Fourth-day arrested at 
Grace Church street meeting, by order of PhiUp Ford, on 
an execution on the special verdict for about £3,000 rent. 
He has, by the advice of all his best friends, turned himself 
over to the fleet. I was to see him last night at his new 
lodging in the Old Bailey. He is cheery and will bear it 
well, and 'tis thought no better way to bring them to 
terms. . . . 

"This act of theirs, with the aggravation of dogging 
with baihffs to a meeting, makes a great noise everywhere, 
but especially among Friends, and people, who did not 
much trouble themselves before, now appear warm, and I 
hope still a good issue." 

It would be too tedious, and not pertinent to the purpose 
of this paper, to dwell upon this historic court proceeding. 
It is sufficient to say that the Ford family — Philip Ford 
having died — were unsuccessful in this litigation, and the 
Province of Pennsylvania continued to be the property of 
William Penn. Concerning tliis suit, and its effect upon the 
Founder, a writer has said: 

14 



BLACK-LETTER DAYS IN THE LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN 

''A long litigation followed, by which Penn was worried 
and harassed beyond endurance, and this was undoubtedly 
the immediate cause of that premature decay of his mental 
faculties by which his later life was clouded." 

Such was undoubtedly the case. This culmination of a 
series of worries and misfortunes, extending over many 
years, during, indeed, almost the entire period of his pro- 
prietorship, so fully undennined his health — to which his 
long imprisonment contributed in no small degree — that 
his mind eventually became seriously affected. During the 
concluding years of his hfe, and especially following a stroke 
of paralysis, in 1712, he was, to large extent, both a physical 
and mental wreck, all his business affairs being handled by 
his wdfe, a woman of great strength of character. Finally 
his bitter hardships and disappointments were terminated 
by his death, July 30, 1718. 

In thus setting forth the numerous black-letter events 
in the life of Wilham Penn, you may conclude that I have 
painted a lugubrious picture, and so I have, yet have I 
presented to you only the facts, and facts are history. 

In thus piling Pehon upon Ossa, and Ossa upon Pehon, 
I have had no other object than a bare presentation of 
certain of the major incidents in the life of William Penn, 
chiefly the result of his project to found a commonwealth 
in the New World. 

One of the lessons to be learned is the ancient one, with 
which all nations are famihar, namely, that republics, and 
all other peoples, are ungrateful. The outcry of a sorrowful 
soul, ''How sharper than a serpent's tooth, to have a thank- 
less child," applies to nations as well as to individuals. 

William Penn not only brought the Province of Penn- 
sylvania into being, but he nursed and nurtured it with all 
the solicitude and assiduity of a parent. He not only gave 
the best of his time and energies to the welfare of his people, 
but Hterally impoverished himself, in the maintenance of 
the provincial government. 

15 



BLACK-LETTER DAYS IN THE LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN 

But, except a few faithful friends, like Edward Shippen, 
Isaac Norris, Thomas Story, Samuel Carpenter, Samuel 
Preston, Griffith Owen, James Logan, and some other 
sterling characters, there remained few to do him reverence, 
or aid him with financial help, with counsel, or even with 
sympathy, when his troubles became most acute, and he 
entered into the valley of the shadow of death. 

Yet there are other lessons we may learn from his experi- 
ences. Throughout all his desperate situations, he evinced 
an abiding faith in the supreme Ruler of the Universe. 
Only by divine strength was he able to bear the many 
burdens placed upon him. 

In one of his letters, dated June 29, 1710, addressed to 
the Pennsylvania Assembly, he said : 

''When it pleased God to open a way for me to settle 
that colony, I had reason to expect a solid comfort from the 
services done to many hundreds of people; and it is no small 
satisfaction to me that I have not been disappointed in 
seeing them prosper, and growing up to a flourishing country, 
blessed with liberty, ease, and plenty, beyond what many of 
themselves could expect; and wanting nothing to make 
them happy, but what, with a right temper of mind and 
prudent conduct, they might give themselves. 

''But alas! as to my part, instead of reaping the Uke 
advantages, some of the greatest of my troubles have 
arisen from thence; the many combats I have engaged in; 
the great pains and incredible expense, for your welfare 
and ease, to the decay of my former estate; of which (how- 
ever some there would represent it) I too sensibly feel the 
effects; with the undeserved opposition I have met with 
from thence, sink me into sorrow; that, if not supported 
by a superior hand, might have overwhelmed me long ago." 

That final sentence illustrates the preeminently religious 
character of the man. It is shown clearly in all his early 
writings, but even more clearly in his correspondence dur- 

16 



BLACK-LETTER DAYS IN THE LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN 

ing the later and more unhappy years of his life. Despite 
his numerous tribulations, which were quite as varied as 
those of Job, he never weakened in his dependence upon a 
higher power than was to be found in his own personality. 

Wlien he planned his colony in the New World, he 
denominated it a "Holy Experiment." While this project 
may have appeared to him a failure, in his days of trouble, 
yet he builded better than he knew. He gave to the world 
a great Commonwealth, founded upon righteous laws and 
upon principles sublime in their conception. 

Unlike some other colonies, Pennsylvania, by Penn's 
command, opened her doors to the men of all nations and 
of all rehgious beliefs. The Province became Uterally an 
asylum for those who desired to worship the Creator in 
their own way, without molestation from priest or potentate. 

Furthermore, the Founder insisted upon such a course 
of conduct toward the aborigines as to save the colony 
from bloody warfare for over a half century; and when it 
did come, it was precipitated by later emigrants, living on 
the border, who had imbibed none of the pacific principles 
of the great Quaker. 

No more expressive tribute was paid to Penn, following 
his decease, than that conveyed to his widow by certain of 
the Indians of Pennsylvania. They sent her a present of 
beautiful skins for a cloak, as they said, 'Ho protect her 
while passing through the thorny wilderness without her 
guide." 

In a letter to James Logan, Mrs. Penn said: 

"I take very kindly the sympathy of all those that 
truly lament mine and the country's loss, which loss has 
brought a vast load of care, toil of mind, and sorrow upon 
me. . . . 

"For my own part, I expect a wilderness of care — of 
briers and thorns transplanted here from thence. Whether I 
shall be able to explore my way, even with the help of my 

17 



BLACK-LETTER DAYS IN THE LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN 

friends, I have great reason to question, notwithstanding the 
Indians' present, which I now put on — having the woods and 
wilderness to travel through indeed." 

Whatever may have been the disappointments and trials 
of WilUam Penn; however far the black-letter days of his 
life may have outnumbered the red-letter days; irrespec- 
tive of the lack of appreciation and sympathy displayed 
toward him by his contemporaries, largely the recipients of 
his bounty; in spite of the ecUpse which engulfed him in his 
latter years, and the tragedy of his death, the memory of 
the Founder of the Commonwealth is now, and forever will 
be, enshrined in the hearts of all Pennsylvanians whose 
souls are not wholly shriveled up by the contemplation of 
things that are sordid and impure. 



18 



UBBABY OF CONGBESS 





014 311 1611* 



